Trump tells China all it has to do for better trade deal is ‘solve the North Korean problem’

Donald Trump’s uncompromising “Twitter Diplomacy” is helping to shed a little more light on what went on behind the scenes at his Mar-a-Lago summit with Xi Jinping last week.The former reality star turned leader of the free world apparently gave the Chinese president some negotiating tips during their first meeting, explaining that China would get a much better trade deal with the US if Beijing would simply deal with the whole Pyongyang problem, according to tweet Trump made on Tuesday.

I explained to the President of China that a trade deal with the U.S. will be far better for them if they solve the North Korean problem!

As part of his “America First” rhetoric, Trump is looking to renegotiate US trade deals with foreign countries, particularly with China which carries a $346 billion annual trade surplus with the US — though apparently he’s also fine with offering economic concessions for diplomatic help.Already, the two countries are hashing out a 100-day plan and China has offered to make some token concessions to Trump to avoid a trade war.Of course, China would also like to avoid a real war. Prior to his meeting with Xi last week, Trump set the stage by saying that China has “great influence” over the nuclear-obsessed regime in Pyongyang, but declaring that if Beijing is not going to help, then the US would deal with the issue on its own.“Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you,” Trump told the Financial Times.Because of North Korea’s continued missile tests, China has already banned coal imports from the country for the rest of the year, cutting off a significant portion of the hermit kingdom’s foreign income.It’s not exactly clear how Trump wants China to “solve the North Korean problem.” Last February when asked about the best course for dealing with North Korea’s nuclear threat, Trump said that he would get China to make dictator Kim Jong-un “disappear in one form or another very quickly.”